“Creativity is what keeps organizations ahead in the marketplace. That means you, as a leader, need to empower your team to generate and execute bold ideas.”

– Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO

Course Description:

Leading for Creativity teaches approaches that empower individuals and teams to search for innovative solutions. You’ll learn how to break down a bold vision into actionable challenges; make adjustments to culture by designing rituals and space; and guide teams into the unknown through the process of experimentation. Tim Brown, along with some of IDEO’s most experienced leaders and inspiring creative partners, will help you unlock the potential of your team or organization.

Course Details:

1. Introduction: Unlock the power of questions to inspire others to navigate their work with confidence.
2. Leading with a Strong Point of View: Set a new course for your team or organization by crafting a well-framed challenge.
3. Leading through Culture: Design rituals that reinforce the beliefs and behaviors of creative teams and organizations.
4. Leading Alongside: Stay present and engaged with the work of your team as they experiment with innovative ideas.

Endorsements for Leading for Creativity

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It takes more than desire to empower your teams to pursue the right ideas. In this course, you’ll be exposed to well-honed methods for creating the capacity for idea generation, driving customer-centricity, assessing and breaking down barriers to execution–whether functional or cultural–and, de-risking what it means to lead and be creative.

-Leslie Witt
Director of XD, Small Business Segment, Intuit

I learned from Tim Brown and IDEO that a leader's role is not to always have the answer, but to create the conditions for things to happen.
Organizations like IDEO, Pixar, and Airbnb aren't assuming a work style just because other systems work that way. They find their own style, grow a culture, and leadership helps that culture to thrive. IDEO teaches how to instill purpose, motivate, inspire, and encourage people to think beyond their ‘job.’

-Chris Waugh
Chief Design & Innovation Officer, Sutter Health

The way work happens today is a hangover from the industrial era and it’s impacting the way we work today. It's too top down and not collaborative. IDEO continually leads the business world by sharing ways to unlock more creative problem-solving. This drives better, faster results at all levels of the organization. IDEO U makes these skills available to your teams and organization.

-Robin Beers
Senior Vice President, Wells Fargo Customer Experience Insights

We've been trained to compete in a world where everything centers on statistics and numbers. Numbers govern our world. Tim Brown's leadership philosophy is changing the way our people think. We now focus on the people using our products and services, so that we can continue to be relevant in an uncertain future.

-Jim Hackett
Chairman, Ford Smart Mobility

Leading for creativity is a new leadership skill. And who better to learn from than Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, the most successful innovation firm for the past 20 years? This course is interactive, fascinating and mind opening.

-Claudia Kotchka
Former of VP Design, Innovation and Strategy, Procter & Gamble

In a rapidly changing world it's key to innovate efficiently. Design thinking equips teams – large and small – to do just that. When learning from Tim, you're learning from the best. I owe him a lot.

-Tom Hulme
General Partner, Google Ventures

What Makes this Course Different:

Leading for Creativity shares IDEO’s best practices on nurturing and inspiring creative organizations. These teachings are born from thirty years of practice with the top leaders and innovators around the globe. We’re releasing this point of view only through IDEO U, because we believe the world needs more creative leaders to tackle today’s toughest challenges.

Tim Brown, IDEO’s CEO, shares his personal leadership philosophy through this course. Over the years, he has advised senior executives and global Fortune 100 companies, participated in the World Economic Forum, and published a book on how design thinking transforms organizations.

This course takes you from the U.S. to China, Peru and beyond, to capture wisdom from leaders spanning diverse industries. You’ll explore these unique perspectives and have the opportunity to take these insights back to your team or organization.

What You'll Do:

• Learn from some of IDEO’s most creative leaders through bite-sized videos.
• Watch creative leadership approaches in action through case studies from IDEO and other global organizations across industries.
• Work on challenges that you’re facing today with other like-minded leaders around the globe.
• Get frameworks and activities that you can practice with your team.
• Enter a dialogue with IDEO practitioners, community guides, and Tim himself

Taste of the Learning Experience:

We're all about rituals at IDEO. They're part of our cultural DNA. See how they make real impact on creative cultures in the video below.

Estimated Time Commitment: 3+ hours per week (4 weeks). We've designed an experience with layers of content for all appetites.

• Learn: 1 hour per week to consume instructional content
• Practice: 2+ hours per week to complete lesson-based assignments, engage in the community forum, and deepen your knowledge of creative leadership with a network of like-minded professionals

What You’ll Get:

• A set of leadership approaches that will help you bring your unique vision to life out in the world
• Downloadable activities to guide your practice of leading for creativity
• Supplemental resources for you to go deeper with the course content
• A certificate to post to your professional network 
• A network of like-minded leaders that spans across industries and functions

About Your Instructor

TIM BROWN Tim Brown is CEO and president of IDEO. He frequently speaks about the value of design thinking and innovation to business people and designers around the world. He participates in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and his talks Serious Play and Change by Design appear on TED.com.  An industrial designer by training, Tim has earned numerous design awards and has exhibited work at the Axis Gallery in Tokyo, the Design Museum in London, and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. He takes special interest in the convergence of technology and the arts, as well as the ways in which design can be used to promote the well-being of people living in emerging economies.  Tim advises senior executives and boards of global Fortune 100 companies. His book on how design thinking transforms organizations, Change by Design, was released by Harper Business in September 2009.